McCormick Posts 9% Sales Gain, Earnings Beat

Shares in McCormick jumped more than 5% after the spice company posted better-than-expected earnings on continued strength in its consumer and industrial businesses.The acquisition of Reckitt Benckiser Foods, the maker of Frank’s RedHot sauce and French’s mustard, helped fuel a 9% gain in McCormi...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 29, 2017

Why You Should Take the “F” Out of FP&A

It wasn’t too long ago that a company with strong investment in and focus on financial planning and analysis (FP&A) was thought to be ahead of the competitive curve. But now, according to one source, companies shouldn’t even be involved in FP&A.What’s that? No planning? No analysis?Well, ...

By David McCann • Sept. 28, 2017

Explore the Trendline➔

Tax policy shifts: What CFOs need to know to stay ahead

Discover how evolving tax policies are creating new opportunities and challenges for CFOs.

By CFO.com staff

Uber Scraps Money-Losing Leasing Business

Uber is shutting down its U.S. car-leasing business after it turned out to be losing far more money than expected.Xchange Leasing was launched two years ago as a way to get drivers with bad or no credit to drive for Uber. It was expected to lose an average of $500 per car but managers recently in...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 28, 2017

Hurricanes Hit Sherwin-Williams’ Q3 Outlook

Paint maker Sherwin-Williams reduced its third-quarter outlook on Thursday, predicting that store closures resulting from the recent string of hurricanes would cost it from $50 million to $70 million in sales.The company also expects costs related to clean up and recovery efforts and tightened su...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 28, 2017

Animal Proteins Beef up Cargill’s Q1 Results

Agribusiness giant Cargill posted a 14% increase in quarterly profit as growing consumer demand for beef offset depressed prices for grain and other commodities.Cargill’s first-quarter net income rose to $973 million from $852 million a year ago while adjusted operating profit rose 7% to $888 mil...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 27, 2017

How to Design an Intelligent Organization

“Intelligent Automation” is such a new term that you won’t find it in Wikipedia or Merriam-Webster. However, we are clearly in the early stages of a technological transformation that’s no less dramatic than the one spurred by the emergence of the Internet.A new age in quantitative and empirical m...

By James Bone • Sept. 27, 2017

How AI Impacts the Tax Function

Imagine you’re on a business trip. You pull off the highway, buy a donut and coffee, then head to your next meeting. Sounds like a routine expenditure, but it’s still important to your company’s tax function. The good news: There’s now an opportunity to use artificial intelligence to automate the...

By Michael Shehab • Sept. 27, 2017

Carnival Posts Record Earnings, Rosy Outlook

Carnival Corp. shares jumped on Tuesday after the world’s largest cruise ship operator reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings and offered a positive outlook despite the hurricanes in the Caribbean.For the third quarter, Carnival’s revenue climbed 8% to $5.5 billion, its strongest growth...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 26, 2017

SEC Eases Compliance with Pay Ratio Rule

New guidance on the CEO pay ratio rule, released last week by the Securities and Exchange Commission, brings significant relief to companies concerned about the possible high costs of compliance.It does nothing, however, to answer persistent questions as to whether a company’s disclosure of its p...

By David McCann • Sept. 26, 2017

M&A Opportunities Abound — If Companies Lower Their Bar

Where are the mergers and acquisitions?Consumer confidence is high. Equity values have been climbing for years, and the markets have seen a significant bump since the presidential election, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbing 22% and the Nasdaq Composite 24% [as of Sept. 19].Bain’s Dal...

By Dale Stafford • Sept. 25, 2017

Companies Piling Losses onto Balance Sheets

Companies may be managing earnings by shifting potential income-statement losses to the other comprehensive income (OCI) part of their balance sheets, the authors of a new study of OCI find.Charles Mulford The report’s authors, Georgia Tech accounting professor Charles Mulford and graduate studen...

By David Katz • Sept. 25, 2017

Carmax Rides Gulf Storms, Stock Rises 7.6%

Carmax on Friday posted better-than-expected quarterly results that showed minimal impact from Hurricane Harvey and sent its stock up more than 7%.The largest U.S. used-car retailer said earnings increased 16.7% to 98 cents per share, while net sales rose 9.7% to $4.39 billion. Analysts had expec...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 22, 2017

Best Buy 4-Year Outlook Disappoints Investors

Best Buy shares fell for a second straight day on Wednesday, reflecting investor disappointment over the company’s financial outlook for the next four years.On its investor day, the consumer electronics retailer said Tuesday it expects enterprise revenue to increase to $43 billion in fiscal 2021 ...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 20, 2017

Weak Yogurt Sales Add to General Mills’ Woes

General Mills shares fell sharply on Wednesday after the company reported disappointing quarterly earnings amid weak demand for cereal and yogurt.For the first quarter, General Mills’ overall sales declined 4% to $3.8 billion, reflecting not only a 7% drop in U.S. cereal sales but also a double-d...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 20, 2017

Companies Get Help with Materiality Definition

Encouraging companies to apply judgment instead of using checklists, the International Accounting Standards Board has issued guidance on on how to make materiality judgments.Effective September 14, the guidance’s purpose is to help corporate executives make sure that their companies’ financials f...

By David Katz • Sept. 19, 2017

New Credential, Standards Add Value to Valuations

Companies that issue financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP, and users of the financials, would benefit from a more rigorous, consistent, and efficient approach to valuation for financial-reporting purposes.Now that benefit is at hand, via a new professional credential — along with mor...

By Michael Aronow and Joan D'Uva • Sept. 19, 2017

Rope Tightens Around Global Tax Avoidance

The OECD’s base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) project, with an overall goal of reducing global loss of tax revenues due to double non-taxation, has created the need for careful monitoring of developments in international tax law.Christopher Howe Universal revenue needs are fueling an unprece...

By Christopher Howe and Alan Cathcart • Sept. 18, 2017

Oracle Shares Slip on Cloud Revenue Outlook

Oracle shares fell more than 7% on Friday as the company’s quarterly guidance came in below analysts’ estimates amid a slowdown in the growth of its cloud business.For the first quarter, Oracle reported total revenue increased 7% to $9.19 billion, driven by a 51% gain in cloud revenue to $1.5 bil...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 15, 2017

CFOs Should Partner with Chief Procurement Officers

For most companies, supplier spending is their single largest cost — about 50% of revenue for manufacturing and 30% for services. And yet, this major contributor to profit and loss is often buried as many companies have poor visibility into their procurement costs.Mike Hales But what exactly is “...

By Mike Hales and Jeff Postma • Sept. 14, 2017

Board Interest in Sustainability Reporting Doubles, Survey Finds

The portion of public company board members who believe that sustainability disclosures are important to inform investors has more than doubled, according to a new survey.Out of 130 board members surveyed in August by the accounting firm BDO USA, 54% say that disclosures regarding sustainability ...

By David Katz • Sept. 13, 2017

Getting Over Hurdle Rates

As upbeat as CFOs may feel about the growth prospects for their own companies and the broader economy, they have yet to loosen the criteria they use for making investment decisions.In the second-quarter Duke University/CFO Magazine Global Business Outlook Survey, which collected responses from 75...

By Josh Hyatt • Sept. 12, 2017

Alexion to Cut 20% of Workforce, Move HQ

Drug maker Alexion said Tuesday it will reduce its global workforce by 20% and move its headquarters as it seeks to rebuild a drug pipeline that is heavily dependent on the blood disorder treatment Soliris.The moves continue Alexion’s “strategic assessment” of its organization amid pressure to cu...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 12, 2017

What I Learned from Being Fired

During his company’s August earnings call, Robert Falzon, the CFO of Prudential Financial, demonstrated his longstanding ability to develop a positive outcome from a negative event. Falzon and other executives of the life insurance and financial services giant had some bad news to explain to the ...

By David Katz • Sept. 12, 2017

Dell Revenue up 48% on Strong PC Business

On the first anniversary of its $67 billion acquisition of EMC Corp., Dell Technologies reported quarterly results that showed the impact of the largest tech merger in history — and its continuing costs.Dell’s second-quarter quarterly revenue rose 48% to $19.3 billion amid strong PC shipments whi...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 8, 2017

Kroger Profit Slips 8% Amid Discounting War

Kroger shares tumbled on Friday after the nation’s largest supermarket chain reported an 8% decline in quarterly profit as intense price competition cut into its margins.As of Thursday’s close, the stock, once a Wall Street darling, had fallen nearly 35% this year and it slid another 7.5% to $21....

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 8, 2017